Instruction Needed

Greetings to all,

I am a 45 yr. old female new to sailing. I am desperately looking for instruction in sailing a Sunfish. A very old friend of my husband was kind enough to loan his 1980 Minifish to me to learn on. We live on a 300 acre private lake and the wind gets really fluky. The swirling winds truly have been a learning experience -- so no complaints in that department!! Yesterday was the first day that I have not ended up being in the water. I have learned to get back in the boat after blow downs and turtling, so no fear in that department..... I have absolutely no problem driving or traveling for instruction, but I am having difficulty finding a school. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I expect to be purchasing a new Sunfish or Sunfish Pro along with a trailer --- any suggestions as to which one would be appreciated. At this point I don't know if I will be interested in racing.... Thanks in advance for the help. Please feel free to contact me if needed.

Sabrina
770-328-7291

There are some strong Sunfish sailors that compete from the Savannah Georgia area, you may want to reach out to some of the sailors from that area. There is also a fleet in Augusta I believe. You may be able to get some contact information here http://southeast.sunfishforum.com/schedule/

Sabrina, it sounds like you've mastered the most essential skill for small-boat sailing: capsize recovery.

The advantages to racing are that it speeds up your learning curve and gets you in contact with other Sunfish sailors.

Sabrina,

You may find my book helpful - "Sailing is a Breeze: Learning to Sail a Laser, Sunfish, or Other Small Boat" you can check it out at the following web site:

www.americanpresspublishers.com/MartinSailing.html

Tom

Sabrina,

Go over to Yahoo Sunfish Sailor and check the files under Sunfish, there are a couple of basic guides there about learning to sail. Hopefully you can find someone willing to give you a few pointers one on one, but club racing will help just like rtsails said.

Sabrina,

BMF posted this a few days ago, so I will give him credit for the info. It was in answer to a gooseneck question, but the site also has info on sailing the Sunfish.

"You could also look to www.starboardpassage.com. This is as racing and coaching site, but has very good, simple instructions for both halyard and gooseneck placement. Of course, you might want the halyard somewhat higher for comfort if you're not racing, but I found the gooseneck settings make for comfortable as well as fast sailing, limiting weather helm. Look under "Sunfish" folder on home page."


Good luck
BMF